ReviewSchizophrenia bulletin open2026
The Lived Experience of Paranoia: Systematic Review of Qualitative Studies.
Review in Schizophrenia bulletin open, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
14 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background and Hypothesis: Paranoia is commonly conceptualized along a continuum ranging from transient suspiciousness and mistrust to fixed persecutory delusions. However, similar paranoid contents may differ in conviction, flexibility, self-reference, distress, functional impact, and embeddedness in broader changes of self, agency, and world-experience. We synthesized qualitative evidence on the subjective experience of paranoia, suspiciousness, mistrust, and persecutory threat. Study Design: Following PRISMA and ENTREQ guidance, we searched PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, Scopus, EBSCOhost, and Ovid from inception to January 31, 2026. Thirty-six qualitative, experiential, or mixed-methods studies were included. Data were analyzed using thematic synthesis informed by phenomenological principles. Studies were classified as core evidence when paranoia was central, or contextual evidence when paranoia-related material was embedded within broader phenomena. Study Results: Three superordinate themes were generated: From interpersonal vigilance to a persecutory world; The threatened self: shame, vulnerability, trauma, and social injury; and Restoring meaning and safety: agency, coping, and altered reality. Paranoia emerged not only as a belief about threat, but as a situated transformation in the relation between self, others, and world. Lower-severity and non-clinical accounts were generally more localized, reflective, and negotiable. Clinical and higher-severity accounts were more pervasive, embodied, self-referential, and reality-defining, often intertwined with voices, external control, altered agency, spiritual meanings, or changes in reality-experience. Conclusions: Paranoia is a multidimensional lived experience shaped by interpersonal threat, self-vulnerability, trauma, sociocultural context, coping, and meaning-making. Assessment should consider what paranoid beliefs mean, what they do for the person, and how they are shaped by biography, context, and lived experience.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.